Detroit 300 demands justice for two seniors robbed, pistol-whipped inside their home

Detroit 300 Nearly 40 Detroit 300 members passed out literature offering a $1,000 reward and asking for information leading to the arrest of three men accused of brutally robbing two women in their homes on Pingree Tuesday.

DETROIT, MI — They marched down the streets of Detroit with a message: We will not allow this injustice to fade into oblivion.

"We need your help," a voice urged through a megaphone as citizen crime fighters marched down a blighted street. "There's a common agreement, even among thieves: We do not beat our women, we do not beat our seniors, we do not beat our mothers.

"This crime happened in your neighborhood."

Detroit police tallied 13,488 burglaries, 4,843 robberies and 9,339 assaults last year. These are not uncommon crimes, but a home invasion committed against two seniors, 83 and 89, about 2:20 a.m. Tuesday has sparked anger and given rise to a grassroots quest for justice.

Three young men, described by police to be in their late-teens or early-20s, pushed in a window air conditioner on the first floor of the two-flat home near the corner of Pingree and Linwood in Detroit.

They crawled in and pistol-whipped Imogene Ankton, sleeping at the time of the break-in, tied her up, stole jewelry and other valuables and helped themselves to some ice cream in the freezer before going up a stairway to the second floor where they robbed Ankton's 83-year-old housemate.

Nearly 40 Detroit 300 volunteers on Wednesday congregated at the intersection near the home as a thunderstorm loomed. They formed groups, prepared stacks of flyers offering a $1,000 reward and plotted how to fan out into the neighborhood within a four-block radius.

Men and women openly drank beer outside a nearby party store advertising state minimum liquor prices and check cashing.

The black-charred carcasses of former businesses are all that remain of several buildings lining Linwood. Ankton's neighborhood looks defeated.

"They gonna find them," says a woman from a picnic bench in a overgrown park as members of Detroit 300 pass.

Next to the park is the home of another senior. It's surrounded by six gutted, forlorn houses that have been empty for years.

"We're trying to get her out now," says Chris Parnell who stands in front of his 88-year-old mother's home. Since the nearby home invasion, Parnell has become concerned for his aging mother's safety.

"Anywhere on the other side of Eight Mile," he says. "We got to get her to go first, but she ain't going."

His mother's unwillingness to move despite suffocating blight and encroaching crime is due to a stubbornness he said a lot of long-time residents share. No matter what, this is still their home, he says.

"I love them," is Parnell's reaction to the Detroit 300 effort "The streets have a tendency of talking. They'll talk. It will come out in the wash.

"You've got to understand one thing, a lot of people in the city think the police is a joke... They don't take the police seriously; they never did."

The Detroit 300 formed in 2010 and has taken a street-level approach to solving some of Detroit's most heinous crimes, usually those in which criminals take advantage of the vulnerable.

Activist group Detroit 300 went door-to-door handing out flyers the neighborhood where days ago two elderly women were attacked in their homes Wednesday, Sept. 11. (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive.com)

Martin Jones, a spokesman for the organization, says that is the key to Detroit 300's success. They're not looked upon as adversaries like police; they're peers.

Detroit police didn't participate in the flyer distribution but were present at the event.

"I'm hoping that because of the nature of this assault that the neighbors will stand up and give us the information, said 10th Precinct Commander Charles Mahone. "That's the major obstacle in the city of Detroit, is the fact that the community will sometimes look the other way, whether they're scared or just part of the problem.

"Events like this, we have that one person out there with that information, sometimes this helps them come forward."

Anyone with information related to the home invasion and assault on Pingree is asked to call the Detroit Police Department, 313-596-5240; or 313-596-1001